Comment: What would you wish for all people in 2023?

My Response: I wish absolute mutual love for all of us. We need nothing else! Love. Just to love each other. For no reason. Just for the fact that we all are people.

Question: Is it possible to live like this, as you just said?

Answer: It is possible.

Question: What do we need to do in order to just love a person and all people?

Answer: We need to understand that in nature there is nothing better than this feeling, this relationship, and all of nature is built on love. Everything that is concealed from us in nature, in the upper nature, is just love.

Question: Can we, if we all would want to, attract the force of nature?

Answer: Yes, nature is waiting only for this. Love is the highest, strongest, and most central feeling and force in nature.

Question: Is it possible to move from hatred to love just like this? Now I clearly hate someone, and suddenly some time passes and we move to love. Can it be or is it a fantasy?

Answer: We can do that. We are in such extreme states that are opposite to this feeling, that we can do it.

It is because we see where we are coming to, where all our efforts and achievements disappear, everything falls out of our hands, and we cannot achieve anything. We are like blind stupid puppies. This is how we live. It is terrible! I have no words!

But if we ask nature to change us, we will receive such a change of forces, feelings, and qualities that we do not even expect, because the Creator is love.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/1/23

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One of the important qualities in spiritual work is patience; one should grit his teeth, shut his mouth, and go through all states.

This is what you do all of your life if you are dealing with the Creator, if He is standing before you, and His revelation and connection with Him is the only thing important for you since He is really the only reason for everything that is happening.

Where else can we go, and what else should we pay attention to? We need the commandment love your neighbor only in order to train and reach His qualities. Neither my neighbor nor I exist here, but only the way to reach the quality of the Creator.

Question: Is patience especially important during a quarrel?

Answer: A quarrel is the appearance of a contradiction with the Creator, when He puts me in such conditions that I do not accept the picture that He paints for me.

Question: In principle, when there is conflict between friends, is this also one of the elements?

Answer: Of course. They just do not feel it. If they are in a group, then this is a lesson for the whole group. They make a hole in the boat in which the whole group sits.

When they quarrel among themselves, they break the unity of the group, and the whole group suffers from this. Nothing can be done here! In such a relationship, no group will achieve any spiritual ascent or revelation of the Creator.

At first, all of this is forgiven and not noticed. Then it reaches such a state that we are obliged to work on ourselves so that the group is similar to the Creator. The relations in the group will always be terrible, nasty, awful, disgusting, and hateful, as in the example of the group of Rabbi Shimon, the creator of The Book of Zohar. But we must rise above this to love.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Conflict between friends” 2/15/14

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Question: Nowadays everyone has his own opinion and everyone thinks that he should express it. What is a personal opinion and how important is it?

Answer: The fact is that egoism has grown. If a hundred years ago people were more modest and understood the division into themselves and others, into their own class and other classes, into social positions, and social culture, and knew whether they could say no, as well as, where, when, and in what society, now all modern liberalizations have led to a state in which a person believes that he can do everything and everywhere. Freedom!

As a result, having neither knowledge, nor culture, nor any skills, he is like “a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.” This is what we see. First of all, such behavior is promoted and demonstrated by the media. What does it take to become a journalist? Nothing. Go and get hired. If you know how to write “well,” then you can immediately join a staff and that is it. And then…

Of course there are top ranking journalists, but they are more like analysts, knowledgeable people with a special mindset. This is already a profession, an internal culture. They may be above politicians. But how many of these are there?

The rest are pencil-pushers. They show young people how to crank out anything that comes to mind. Young people learn how to express themselves from these individuals, and this is how a generation grows. In each generation you can see by what kind of media they have been raised. And these mediums set the tone. If you look into it, the headlines are provocative, but there is nothing in the text.

In general, all these cheap tricks teach people a disdainful attitude to the truth and to how one can express oneself. The main thing is to giggle and laugh at something absolutely empty because that is customary. Everything is based on this.

But these are all signs of a fall. This is how all civilizations gradually died out. We are in the last period of the decline of our egoistic civilization, which includes a lot of different civilizations and periods, both in time and in the division of itself into many simultaneously existing civilizations. Today there are six or seven of them in the world, not to mention how many different stages of human development we have gone through. Today it all is coming to an end.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Personal Opinion” 12/26/13

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After going through the period of “the exploration of the Land of Israel,” the group of Abraham achieved a state where, from the desire manifested between them, they were able to create one common desire for mutual bestowal and love, in which they revealed the upper force—the Creator.

In other words, they rose to His degree and came to an ideal state. But as soon as they reached it, even greater egoism began to manifest itself, because they took with them from Babylon all the huge egoism that was above them and related not even to them, but to the quality of bestowal and love.

So, the universal egoism of the next, even higher degree began to manifest itself, which is inherent in all of humanity, the whole mass, not just this small group, although they were growing and strengthening in power all the time.

According to Rambam, 5,000 people left Babylon, and when they reached the degree of the land of Israel, there were 3,000,000 of them. That was 2,700 years ago.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. History of the Jewish People” 5/4/14

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why is it so hard for people to listen to someone without interrupting them?“

Why is it sometimes very hard to listen to others? Due to our egoism and pride, where we primarily consider our self-benefit over everything and everyone else, it is common for us to hold certain disagreements with others’ opinions. It might not even be a different opinion, but the sheer fact that another person is saying what I would want to say and not me is enough for me not to listen.

The opinion itself is not so important. What matters is the ability to express oneself.

Sometimes, a situation arises where one person pushes their views onto another who might have different views, and this gives a feeling that the one pushing their views is suppressing the other person’s sense of self. It is because when we listen, we fall under the influence of the other person. Where are we in those moments? We seemingly become nonexistent, which is why we feel a need to switch on our own mouths here and there.

In other words, we should not enter into conversations in a direct and forceful way, even if what we say is seemingly right and to the point. There needs to be preparation. That is, we need to give the person we are talking with a feeling that they are right. We can then talk our hearts away with them, and afterward, when the other person has discharged themselves, we can then start turning the conversation little by little.

Based on the video “Why Can it Be So Hard to Listen to Other People?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Tal Mandelbaum. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash.

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Preparation to the Lesson

Zohar for All “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” “The Donkey Driver,”  Item 83

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 27

Selected Highlights

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The Rabbis’ Letter against the new government is a big deal over nothing”

As the new Israeli government was taking shape, an open letter titled A Call to Action began to circulate among American Jewish communities. The signatories, some of whom are prominent figures in American Jewry, pledged “to not invite any members of the RZP [Religious Zionist Party] … to speak at our congregations and organizations. We will speak out against their participation in other fora across our communities. We will encourage the boards of our congregations and organizations to join us in this protest as a demonstration of our commitment to our Jewish and democratic values.”

This letter is worth mentioning only because it is a good reminder for Israelis what American Jewry thinks of Israel. The letter exposes the simple truth that the majority of American Jewry, not all, but certainly a substantial majority among them, oppose Jews being in Israel, and oppose the State of Israel altogether. From their perspective, it would be best if Israel did not exist.

I understand why they need to speak out. First of all, if they keep quiet, it is as if they do not exist, so they need to make some noise. Second, by and large, American Jewry has one goal in mind: to make its stay in the US as safe and serene as possible. Since the world sees Jews as connected all over the world, American Jewry finds itself having to explain the position of the State of Israel, and it makes them feel uncomfortable and unsafe. Because they feel that the existence of Israel risks their own safety in the US, they do not want Israel to exist, certainly not as a Jewish, Zionist entity.

Israel’s Judiciary: Reform or Ruin?

Lucky for Israel, it is not in any way dependent on American Jewry. The money they donate will not be missed if it stops flowing; Israel is strong enough without it. The lobbying they do for Israel has also not been there for us for many years, and Israel’s strength lies elsewhere today. Therefore, I do not think that Israel should mind at all what Jewish congregations in America think about Israel.

The interests that shape Israel’s position in the world are far more comprehensive than our relationship with this or that denomination in American Jewry. Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, and Iran all take part in the map of interests, and Israel is much more powerful than it used to be, both on the military end and on the economic end.

In fact, even if the US would, for some reason, stop providing military and economic aid to Israel, it would not hurt Israel’s position or harm it economically or otherwise. I do not see such a scenario unfolding, but just to give some perspective as to how independent Israel has become, it is good to remember that we are standing on our own two feet today.

The new government that has just been sworn in is rife with experienced people, who know what they want and how to achieve it, and despite some newspapers’ attempts to portray the new government as a disaster in the making, the majority of the people in Israel feel more confident now than under the previous government.

Yet, above and beyond all the political arguments, the main problem that severs American Jewry from Israel and from Israelis is the simple truth that there is hatred between us. It is fine not to agree. There are arguments in every nation, and some people even choose to leave their country because they disagree with the policy of their government. However, no Chinese in exile and no Iraqi who has fled his country’s regime would want their country to stop existing altogether. This aspiration is uniquely Jewish, and stems from our total hatred for each other, what we Jews know as sinaat hinam (hatred without cause).

If we could overcome that hatred, we would be able to overcome every disagreement. Since we do not want to even admit that our hatred for each other is so deep, we have no chance of curing it. Specifically for the people of Israel, sinaat hinam is an unforgivable sin, the root cause of all the torments that the nations of the world have inflicted on us throughout the generations.

If we tried to love one another, we would not have to hate each other in politics; we would not feel we must appease the nations, and the world would not hate us. When humanity looks at us, it sees our hatred for each other, and seeing it makes them hate us to the core, to the point where they do not want our existence in this world.
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is Israel’s side of the story?“

Recently, at a border crossing in Huwara, a large town South of Nablus, a Palestinian terrorist was shot dead by an Israeli border police officer during a struggle after the terrorist tried to steal the officer’s weapon. The event was filmed, distributed on social media and presented as the execution of a Palestinian. Israel was condemned for the act by the United Nations, America and others, and it once again awakened the question as to whether others will see Israel’s side of the story. That is, the officer acted in order to protect his own life and the life of others, and it is also written in the Torah that if a person comes to kill you, you need to kill them first.

That others will see Israel’s side of this story depends solely on whether we Jews act out of a common unification toward each other, above our differences. The world will then shift its attitude toward Israel from negative to positive, i.e. to a people who bring peace and love to humanity. As much as we behave as a divided people, then the world will likewise feel that we bring sorrow and torment to the world—and they will continue viewing us in a negative light.

Israel is held to completely different standards than any other nation because there is more of a demand upon Israel than on any other nation. We initially became the people of Israel when we followed Abraham’s guidance and reached a state of “love your neighbor as yourself.” Attaining a state of a common love toward each other is a law that we need to abide by in order to realize what we need to do in the world. After we implement this law among our own connections, we will then be able to love others too, and then they will also love us in return.

It acts like a chain, and the first link of that chain is love for our fellow people here—among the people of Israel. If we reach a state where we positively connect to each other above our differences, we will then positively influence the rest of the world. Other nations will then gain an ability to positively connect, and then they will understand that Israel grants them this ability. We will then become treated contrarily to how we are treated today: as bringers of peace. Humanity’s good or bad future rests in how the people of Israel will attune their attitudes toward each other.

Based on the video “When Will People See Israel’s Side of the Story?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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Question: Your teacher was already an elderly person when you met him. You knew that in any event he would pass away. Did you prepare yourself for his death?

Answer: It was absolutely clear to me that I would be unable to live a single day in the surroundings where he was once he was gone. I was in that place and with those people only because of him. Only! The moment he would not be there, I would not be there either.

Rabash left. He died in my arms in the hospital. There was no one around him but me. It was Friday. I called and told the guys that our teacher is not here anymore. People started coming to the hospital. The same day the funeral took place at 11 in the morning. We went to Jerusalem. I remember all of this as in a dream.

I still thought that I should not be so easily separated from the others and they from me, and that we should break into many parts. I understood that eventually I would have to do that. I was thinking that we would have to reorganize somehow in the same system, in the same society. After all, in Kabbalah it is written about society, about group, so it means I have to do something. And I tried.

In the end I felt rejection from the others, and they felt the same way toward me, and everything broke into many pieces. One group stayed in Bnei Barak, another one in Jerusalem, the third one somewhere else. It happened as I expected.

Question: Does it mean you played the “film” of what would happen after Rabash’s death for yourself?

Answer: Absolutely. No doubt. I even talked using hints about this with Rabash. Why not?

In the same way today I can talk about what will happen when I am gone; there has to be a group the same as now. The core of the group is the people I rely on even today. I can even say their names. They can lead the group correctly together and in no way will be swayed by other opinions that jump out here and there.

The same happened after Rabash was gone. Right away upstarts appeared. With the teacher they were sitting quietly in the corner, but now they got a feeling that everyone is equal. No way! There are no equals.

There are people who are not capable, do not understand, and still undeveloped internally to be inside the governing system, in the core. And there are those who according to their inner readiness, to their connection with me are ahead. They possess the inner self-discipline; they can continue to carry on this mission. Therefore, I think it will get organized this way.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/12/10

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